advice on tracking and automating logins
 

not sure if this belongs in programming or networking so
i'll start here.

i have a small network at home processing timelapse photos
i take. it's comprised of an xp home box with the original
files on it, an admin box running mandriva 2007.1, and a
half dozen processing boxes also running mandriva 2007.1.

i run a couple of scripts on the various boxes to process
my timelapse photos. the first script runs on the admin
box and counts the files on the xp box so they can be evenly
distributed between the six mandriva processing boxes.

since xp home only allows five connections at a time, only
four of my processing boxes can connect at a time. the
admin box uses up the remaining connection. the admin script
increments as it tells each processing box to log onto the
xp box. once it gets to four, it goes into a loop reading
a small text file on the xp box.

the text file on the xp box just holds six lines that say
either 'true' or 'false'. each line corresponds to one of
the processing boxes. as each processing box logs onto the
xp box, it changes its line from 'false' to 'true' and back
to 'false' when it logs off.

this last is what's giving me trouble. i've gotten this to
work, but not reliably. i'm not an admin or a programmer.
this was only way i could think of to keep track of the
connections to the xp box.

the admin script is in its loop, reading this file and
counting the number of lines that say 'true'. if the number
false below four, then the admin loop advances and sends an
ssh command to the next processing box, telling it to log on
to the xp box.

what's a better way a novice like me could accomplish this
task?

the issue i've been having seems related to syncing the
reading by the admin box with the writing from the processing
boxes. too often the processing boxes fail to make the changeover,
when one of them logs off the next never logs on and the moving
of my files stops at the first four boxes.

thanks for any advice,
BabaG

Just transfer the files to the admin box to start with. No more connection limit.

thanks lazlow. the admin box is an older box and copying
everything to it is slow. it takes hours to move things.

i've also had some issues with the network generally being
slow. it's a gig-e network. i originally had things set up
similar to your suggestion but found it slow. i had everything
mounted on the admin box via samba.

in trying to troubleshoot the sluggishness, i changed to the
current setup so each box would have a direct connection
to the xp box rather than passing through the admin box.
that hasn't sped things up much, if at all.

i'd like to avoid another rewrite of the scripts and just find
a better way of syncing the log on/off process if that's
possible.

thanks,
BabaG

You might try NFS for linux-linux transfers. Using Samba for linux-linux transfers is just adding an additional layer of complexity needlessly. In my experience samba runs far slower on linux-linux transfers. Usually with NFS over GigE the limitation is the speed of the hard disks involved(modern drives are 70megs/sec plus). Even a poorly configured a GigE network should be able to sustain 75megs/sec.

I am sure you know but a GigE transfer has to be GigE from end to end. Nic1 to switch to Nic2 and all the cable connecting them, all have to be GigE capable.

thanks again lazlow.

the way the system is set up there shouldn't be any
actual transfer of files in a linux-linux way. all
of the moving of files happens from the xp box to
the linux boxes. that's why the samba usage.

it's possible that the hard drives are the issue as
the linux boxes are older. when i get a chance i need
to run some tests on them.

in the mean time, i'll be continuing to look for ways
to make the syncing of my scripts with the log on/off
process more reliable.

BabaG